|
An exasperated Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei vented his frustration with progress at six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program on Tuesday, in remarks clearly aimed at recalcitrant main opponents Washington and Pyongyang. ¡°It will be difficult to reach an agreement in this state. Let the participant nations reconfirm whether they have the will to compromise and decide whether to continue with the talks or stop,¡± Wu berated a meeting of chief negotiators.
They responded by sitting down to talks again, saying this round of negotiations must produce results. But unilateral concessions are unlikely as matters of national strategy are involved for both sides. Talks were adjourned and restarted several times since the moment one party calls it quits it incurs all the blame from the other parties.
U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill, who had been holding back from criticizing the North, is also sounding frustrated, saying Tuesday he would continue to talk with the North for some time further but adding, ¡°Frankly we were not able to bridge any differences.¡± South Korea¡¯s delegation head Song Min-soon looked and sounded drained when he said, "We are exhausting our wisdom."
A fresh Chinese draft statement of principles reportedly allowed North Korea to operate nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes, merely calling on the North to rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty and undergo IAEA inspections. The U.S. and Japan naturally object.
The South Korean delegation is reportedly inching closer to letting North Korea use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, although it balks at North Korean demands to restart construction of two light-water reactors that was suspended when the current crisis started. In its keynote address, Seoul called for the verifiable dismantling of all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs, but recently the South Korean delegation would only confirm it used the ¡°comprehensive¡± ? read more vague -- phrase "North Korea's nuclear dismantlement" in its draft.
Although Hill said the differences were ¡°between the North Korean side on one hand and everyone else on the other hand," it appears that on the question of peaceful nuclear energy it is the U.S. and Japan versus the rest. Even largely silent partner Russia came out on Monday with a surprise offer to help with development of peaceful nuclear energy. Perhaps that is the reason the U.S. stresses North Korea¡¯s isolation to reporters, when in previous rounds it was always North Korea that claimed the U.S. was alone.
North Korea reportedly also once again raised the issue of a U.S. nuclear weapons umbrella it believes protects South Korea. The Japanese press reported Pyongyang also brought up nuclear weapons at U.S. bases in Japan, which would confirm Hill's complaint the previous day that issues he believed resolved had surfaced again.
Officials at the talks say technical issues where the vice minister-level negotiators have full discretion have mostly been resolved, and now the time had come for the U.S. and North Korean governments to make strategic decisions.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
